One key issue remains before Tsarnaev's trial: whether the case will be tried in Boston. A June 18 hearing was scheduled Wednesday to determine the venue.

The trial date decision came down Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. scheduled it to start Nov. 3, about 18 months after Tsarnaev and his brother allegedly planted two bombs near the renowned race's finish line on April 15, 2013.

"I think it is a realistic and a fair one," O'Toole said.

The resulting explosion killed three people and wounded more than 260. Before Tsarnaev was apprehended a few days later, his brother, Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a police shootout and an MIT guard was killed, allegedly by the brothers.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal counts, including using a weapon of mass destruction. He is being held at a federal prison and was not in court for Wednesday's hearing.

O'Toole agreed with the prosecution that Tsarnaev's court date should be held well in advance of the defense's September 2015 request.

Still, that didn't please everyone.

"I think it should be sooner," bombing survivor Marc Fucarile told the Boston Globe. Why not? Everybody should be on the same page. It's pretty cut and dry with the evidence. Don't waste anybody's time."

Fucarile lost his right leg above the knee.

Tsarnaev was not at the hearing. Prosecutors have said the brothers were inspired to fill pressure cookers with explosive and projectiles for their terrorist act by Al Qaeda publications.

Martin Richard, 8, of Boston; Krystle Campbell, 29, of Medford; and Lu Lingzi, 23, a Boston University graduate student from Shenyang, China, died in the explosions. Among those maimed, more than 15 lost limbs.

Defense attorney Judy Clarke, one of the country's leading death penalty specialists, complained that prosecutors have been "sluggish" in turning over evidence to her team. In particular, she cited 2,000 pieces of physical evidence at an FBI lab in Quantico, Va., that the defense hasn't been able to examine yet.

"It's not the defense dragging its feet. We're really struggling with getting access to evidence," she said.

Clarke said it's doubtful the defense could get experts to review the items before this summer, which would make a November trial date "virtually impossible."

Clarke said the defense has a "tremendous amount" of work to do to compile information on Tsarnaev's family history. The family lived in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and came to the United States about a decade ago from the Dagestan region of Russia.